Lophostrix cristata in Finca Cantaros.
Crested owl
Tag Archives: Birds
Variable seedeater nestlings
A couple of nests and nestlings of the Variable Seedeater, Sporophila corvina. I intended to photograph the adults, but, in both cases, the babies disappeared after just a couple of days… probably through predation.
Yellow-throated Toucans
Along the Gamboa Trail in Las Cruces, we came across some yellow-throated toucans (Ramphastos ambiguus) displaying some peculiar behavior. One was hanging by its beak from another and a third was adjacent and calling. We watched with concern and took a video.
Eventually, the hanging individual was released with a loud snap—presumably the other bird’s beak snapping shut—and flew to a tree nearby, but was quickly pursued by the other two birds.
We assumed this was aggressive behavior, but, on the way back via taxi, the driver (who has lived in the area for his entire life… he even grew up in the garden at Las Cruces as his family worked there) suggested this was courtship—the female was hanging while the male held her. I couldn’t confirm this behavior anywhere (perhaps with a library) but beak knocking occurs during courting.
Orange-billed sparrow
Orange-billed sparrows are common in the garden and along the Java trail. On this occasion, unfortunately, the bird had hit a window and died.
Crested Guan
Crested guan, Penelope purpurascens, are common in the Wilson Botanical Garden and the surrounding forests, including secondary and primary forests. They are often startling when the flee in the forest, similar to some pheasants in North America.
Mixed flock feeding
I’ve seen mixed flocks of passerines bouncing through a forest, feeding on different vertical levels and plants, but hadn’t really ever noticed it among these waders and swimmers. There were probably over 15 Double-Crested Cormorants, a few Snowy Egrets and Great Egrets, about six Brown Pelicans, and a handful of passing Royal Terns, all cruising a small marsh creek entrance as the tide approached the morning high.
Brown pelican dive
Willet and plovers
Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus) and some plovers (Charadrius sp.; maybe Wilson’s Plover?) hanging out as the sun rises at Little Tybee Island. The willets stood on one foot, and many of them hopped around, instead of putting their other foot in the frigid water.
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Frida and Pablo
Pablo enjoys some millet as Frida calls.